Are you planning to build a game for Windows 8 or Windows Phone 8 ?. Still have no idea where to start? . Then this article is for you. Microsoft's managed code game development framework is XNA.
The latest version XNA 4.0 was released in 2011. Since then Microsoft hasn't released a new version of XNA. XNA became quite popular because it allows you to build games for PC, XBOX and Windows Phone games easily. You just have to worry about the game logic. Most of other things are handled by the framework. But, with the release of Windows 8 Microsoft came up with a new breed of apps. Metro style apps(including games) became a key feature in Windows 8. Developers started to find ways to build games and apps for the new Windows Store. Unfortunately XNA was not an option. You can't make games for Windows Store using XNA. How ever making games for Windows Phone 8 is possible but you can't use any Windows Phone 8 specific features in your game. What you can do is making the game targeting Windows Phone 7. It will work fine in Windows Phone 8 handsets. So, let's have a look at other options you have.
Direct X SDK
You can makes games for Windows Phone and Windows 8 using DirectX SDK. But this will not be an easy approach for the beginners. You need have a good working knowledge in C++. This approach is used to build high performance games. When it comes to the performance, this is a good approach.
Javascript
Using Javascript is another way to achieve this. There are some good Javascript game engines out there which makes the development process easier. This approach will help you to publish your game on several platforms because these games are made with Javascript/HTML5. Easeljs is a good game engine which supports Metro Style apps. There are lot more out there.
Monogame
Monogame is an open source version of the XNA framework. But the difference is huge. Monogame supports a variety of platforms including iOS, Android, Ouya, Windows 8 Store, Windows Phone 8. Actually it has a better future than XNA because of the cross platform capability. You need to have a fair knowledge of C# in order to develop using Monogame.
GameMaker
The GameMaker is another way go. Using game GameMaker you can make simple games without coding. But if you can do some coding you can do commercial level stuff using GameMaker. The coding is done using GML (Game Maker Language) which is very powerful and easy to learn. GameMaker comes with so many features including integrated physics, level editor etc. This is a good way to get started in game development.
Construct 2
Construct 2 allows you to build HTML 5 game easily. It's great for beginners. There is a free version of Construct 2 but it comes with some limitations. But still it's great tool for you to get started.
These are some good options you have if you are going to make games for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. There will be lot more in the future.
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